Rolling Waves, Turning Tides
by I Swear On The Styx
Summary: The summer of my 18th year, I met Apollo. Unlike anyone else I've ever met, even during my time at Camp Half-Blood in the Poseidon cabin with my brother Percy, we quickly began what became an intense relationship. Can what we have survive everything going against us? [Apollo/OC] [Dionysus/OC #2]
1. For once, everything goes smoothly

**A/N: Hi guys! As some of you may know, my name is Riley, and I'm the author of _Elena's Story_. If you don't know what that is, let me fill you in: it was a story I wrote when I was 13, about a 16 year old demigod named Elena Westlie, who fell in love with the god Apollo. It's on this account, and you can read it if you'd like! **

**But that was _6 years ago_ , and so my best friend Whitney (author of _Emilie's Story,_ also on this account) and I decided that we'd do something great: we'd rewrite our stories (the stories of who we'd be if we lived in the Percy Jackson universe, as demigods) to reflect who we are now- and in honor of the new book about my boyfriend, Apollo!**

 **But the whole story is in 2 parts: _Rolling Waves, Turning Tides_ , and the story of her best friend, _Accidental Affair_. So if you want to get the whole picture of Elena's life, read that too!**

 **This story takes place, like _Elena's story_ , a couple of years after the books have ended, where Percy is older and away at college. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO series, but I DO own Elena Westlie!** ** _There will be no spoilers for the new books._**

* * *

Up until my twelfth year, I always felt like I was waiting for something. Not consciously, of course, but there. Right under my skin, like the feeling just before a wave breaks, you know it's coming, but it hasn't happened yet.

So I like organic cookies. Okay, that didn't really have to do with anything, but it has _everything_ to do with my mom. She's one of those self-proclaimed "hippy-dippy" types (Emilie's mom's words, not mine. My mom loves it.) despite being born in the _late_ seventies. She was a little late to the party, but never quite got that memo, so she still dresses like _her_ mother did when she was born. Very new-age, organic foods, long skirts, and during my entire third grade, dreadlocks. She's one for cooking, and when we lived in Seattle, it was really easy to find organic markets, she really fit in there.

Donna "Opal" (legally changed) Westlie was _not_ someone who looked like they belonged in Manhattan. But to my friends, she was always known as the "cool mom." She was a little spacey, which is why no one ever actually paid much attention to the slightly bizarre things she sometimes said. We were pretty sure it's because she smoked a lot of weed around the time I was born, so she didn't always remember the things she got up to back then, and I figured she felt bad about not remembering my father, so she kinda made one up. She called him Poseidon. Like the Greek god? Yeah, like the Greek god. That's how we knew he was made up.

She said I had his nose, which was a little obvious, because I certainly didn't have _hers_. It's one of my most defining features, she liked to say, and that I should be proud of it. I also got my hair from him. Black and thin, I wore it short for a long time, until the past few years, when I decided that I wanted to be able to do things with my hair. So just before leaving for camp after the 11th grade, I bleached it blonde, and've kept it that way since. It's long now, wavy strands down my back. My mom likes to braid glass beads into it when we drink together, she said it reminded her of my dad, when I looked like that. Her hair was much lighter than mine is naturally- it's a thick mousey brown, matching her hazel eyes- the one thing I really inherited from her.

Everything else was a little mix-and-match with me. I didn't know what my father really looked like- Mom said she didn't have any pictures, but that I looked very much like him. I always thought she was just pointing out the parts of me that didn't look like her so I'd feel closer to him- my Greek nose, my black hair, my ability to tan without looking like a lobster.

I spent most of my early life on beaches in Washington. The rocky shores are like no other beaches I've ever seen, and as much as I like Florida or California or New York beaches, Washington rocks and sand will always seem like home to me. My grandparents used to take me to Whidbey Island for parades, and my mom and I would spend hours splashing in the chilly water, as the wind ran through her hair.

When I was in the third grade, she moved us to New York, claiming it was to be "closer to family" which didn't make any sense at the time- my grandparents lived in Snohomish. Of course it made a lot more sense after my twelfth summer, since I discovered I had about five hundred cousins all living just outside Manhattan, and a few on a cloud just above it.

It was actually a huge coincidence I met Emilie at all. Out of all the schools in all the cities she could have moved to with her family from New Jersey, she moved five blocks away from me and my mom, and enrolled in the same class I did. Maybe it was divine intervention, or maybe it was just the draw of genetics, but Emilie and I hit it off, and she became my best friend for life. I didn't know until much later that she was _actually_ my cousin.

Emilie's mom didn't really like my mom. Her mom was from Cuba, and spoke English perfectly- she was a banker, which is how she met Emilie's dad, and also her _father_ \- but she was a little bit uptight. I suppose our moms were kinda on the opposite extremes on the mom scale, which is why my mom was so chill with Emilie's, and Emilie's so not with mine. None of the stuff we did, like underage drinking, really happened until after the big reveal and high school, so at the time she couldn't really protest Emilie hanging out with me, and after the big reveal, she was kinda stuck with us.

Emilie's dad and her _father_ aren't the same guy. She has an older brother, Sam, who's actually her half brother, on her mom's side. He was ten years older than her, born three years before her mom and dad even decided to get married. Emilie was born ten years later. It turned out that her mom had had an affair with a man she met at the bank, whose _real_ name she never even learned.

Nobody but Emilie's mom knew that, not until we were twelve.

Emilie Reynolds, my best friend, didn't look much like me, despite similar descriptions of us. Emilie was shorter than me, by a good few inches, her own dark hair cropped at the shoulder. Her eyes were much darker than mine, and after the few seconds I had meeting her father years later, I can say one thing: if she'd inherited anything from him, it was his eyes. Her face, like her mother's, was round, and she had the same complexion as her mother. I suppose her father had a thing for darker women.

This is all the stuff before. And after? Everything changed.

My name is Elena Westlie, and I'm a daughter of Poseidon.

The summer before my thirteenth birthday, there was a really big storm that hit New York. It also hit California, and a lot of other places too, but it was really concentrated in my city. For the most part of the summer, people were really worried, and even my mom urged us to stay inside. What I didn't know, for most of the summer, was that it wasn't really a big storm, but demigods like myself, and gods, like my father, fighting to stay alive against the forces of the titans. But my family won that war, and in the last two weeks of that summer, Emilie and I were summoned to this place called Camp Half-Blood, for people like us, we were told.

Satyrs were sent for the kids of parents who knew- like me- and camp counselors were sent for the kids who's parents' didn't know their child was half Greek god, like Emilie's, in a story I never quite got to hear. At first I didn't believe it- my mom _must_ have gotten one of her friends to come play a trick on me- but as soon as Gwartney showed us his cloven hooves, I was a little more inclined to believe what he said.

He explained that as part of some demigod agreement, the time had come for me and all of the other children of Greek gods to come to camp to be claimed as children of our parents, and I'd find out who my dad really was. When my mother told him that Poseidon was my father, he looked a little skeptical, but just nodded along with her, and on the way down to the van taking all the Manhattan kids to camp, he explained that _sometimes_ lesser gods told mortals they were someone else to impress them, so don't be surprised if my father was like, Hypnos or Deimos.

When I climbed into the van, to my eternal surprise, I saw a very dazed Emilie. She'd just been told through a big reveal that her dad wasn't her biological father, and that by coming to this camp, she'd find out who he really was. There were a bunch of other kids in the van- two of the older kids, maybe in high school, were in bright orange shirts and had bead necklaces around their necks- mostly people our age, but a few younger or older.

After three or four more stops, we started the trip to Long Island, where we'd spend the next two weeks of our summer, and the next five summers till now. The eighteen of us piled out of the van and into this place they called "the Big House" which was just that- a large farmhouse with lounge chairs on the porch, rooms we weren't allowed into, and more than a dozen bizarre sights. We were all shuffled into a large room with a projector, where we watched an orientation video that left our heads spinning.

Then, the two guides popped up, introducing themselves as Will Solace, and Malcolm Pace. Malcolm was a son of Athena, and Will a son of Apollo. It still felt unreal to me- the grumpy-looking man in purple that had been sitting in the front of the bus was a _god_? My own _father_ was a god?

But then the two campers had the other sixteen of us lineup in alphabetical order, and as the man- no, god- known as Mr. D, our new activities director, read off our names- somehow, miraculously, not getting a single name right the first time- glowing symbols appeared over our heads, washing us in colored lights. The symbols, not always incredibly obvious, were somehow known to all of us. _Apollo, Demeter_ , and then, _finally_ , me. It didn't come as a shock when the glowing symbol over my head was a trident.

Emilie, who was a few campers before me, was still staring at the symbol over her head, a skull that somehow radiated black light, giving her a shadow-laden appearance, and she looked lost. _Hades_. Racking my brain, the best I could come up with was, _he's the god of dead people, right_? But after a moment, I realized that wasn't what was bothering her, not at all. I'd _met_ her dad, I'd been over to her house a million times. Only, the man she called 'Dad' wasn't actually her father. Not anymore.

It was in that moment I realized- not in finding out gods were real, or seeing a half-horse man walk from the porch, or even getting into a van with a bunch of weird kids, but in that moment- that nothing would ever be the same for us.

* * *

At first, we didn't really understand what it really meant to be a child of the big three. How could we?

But quickly we realized that even among other demigods like the two of us, we were… different. At first, people stared at us a lot, even when they knew we were looking back, whispering as we were escorted into our new cabins. The camp was what I always pictured a summer camp would be like, cabins in the woods, a lake, and activities dotted around the property! Only, this camp had swordfighting and rock-climbing-with-lava under standard activities.

My cabin, I was told, was home to only one other resident, my new- _brother_ , technically- a sixteen year old kid named Percy Jackson, who would also be my camp counselor. Though we never really got close before he moved out three years ago when he turned eighteen and went to college with his girlfriend, he was always there when I needed help. I always had the feeling that he resented the fact I existed, like he was upset Dad did that to him. I don't really blame him, it's an only child kind of feeling.

The cabin- number three, already attesting to my somewhat importance on the godly food chain- was a grey sea stone on the outside, with abalone walls on the inside. There were a few scattered beds, grey with blue sheets, with only one looking slept in, and a broken fountain in the corner. Despite everything, it felt like… home. Not the home in Manhattan, my bedroom at my mom's apartment, but the beaches of Washington, with the dying light of an afternoon spent in the water.

We spent the next to weeks learning everything we could about our new life as a demigod, training with swords, and meeting everyone we could. It's one of the best times I've had in my entire life. It was also one of the only times I've ever met my dad.

I've met my father three times. Once was that very first summer, the day before the cleaning harpies were to come, and everyone was saying their goodbyes. I'd met a lot of people that summer, and for once in my life, all I felt like doing was avoiding them all. I was normally such a calm and collected person, even at twelve, but there was something about finding out all of these things in such a short time. They'd had to tell us everything we needed to know in the two weeks we had that summer, the two weeks they extended it because of the big battle they said happened in downtown Manhattan. It ran right up to my new brother's birthday, and a lot of the campers stayed up with him and his girlfriend by the campfire.

But I just- needed to escape, so I followed the now-familiar path to the lake, and just, sat. I don't know when he showed up, or when he left, actually, but for a while there, my father sat beside me, and I saw, in him, what my mother saw in me sometimes.

The second time I saw him was right after my sixteenth birthday party. I was in Snohomish with Emilie, at my grandparents'. As my birthday present, we took a train across the country to see them, and we were to spend the week climbing mountains and swimming in the pacific ocean and visiting all my old favorite beaches. After three days of Emilie absolutely wanting to murder me, and my grandpa twisting his ankle- causing him to sit out the rest of the trip, making it just the three of us for the final four days- went back to my grandparent's farm (which was mostly just a garden and a bunch of goats on a few acres) and I went swimming. Flowing Lake was a bit far, but that late in the year it was nearly empty, and it had always been one of my favorites.

At that point I'd been breathing underwater for a few years, and when I finally surfaced, he was sitting there on the dock. We exchanged a few pleasantries, and he finally he said something along the lines of, "Look what Percy could do at your age, why aren't you saving the world?" I mean, my mom was always incredibly supportive in whatever I did, so I suppose one parent had to be slightly disappointed just to even it out, I mean, I'd seen it in Emilie's parents.

The last time I saw him was a little under a year ago, just after the year had started. Here's the thing: me and my dad have a thing about letters. It's something Percy and I don't share, maybe it's because I've always liked writing more than him, but anyway, it is something that my dad and I have in common: we like writing letters. So we do. It isn't more than once a month or so, and they travel by snail mail, and we love it. We've been writing letters since I was thirteen, and instead of writing my mom like the camp counselors suggested, I wrote my dad on a whim, since I knew, knowing my mom, she'd forget to write back until after I was already home. And we'd been conversing ever since. But that year, I jokingly asked him to come to dinner one evening, and much to my surprise, he came. That made for a very interesting dinner party, a story for a different time.

In truth, we didn't actually have many run-ins with monsters much, growing up. Not until the big war, and even then every monster had its hands full with the experienced demigods. Hell, we didn't even know we were demigods yet!

But we were lucky. By the time the following summer came around, Zeus had gone back on his word and a lot of gods had stopped claiming their kids, and little ones started piling up in the Hermes cabin again, or so we're told.

Over the years, they've gone back to claiming their kids, so most kids don't spend too long in the Hermes cabin. Emilie, actually, spent her first summer, those two weeks, in the Hermes cabin herself. Back then, they were still building all of the other cabins, including Emilie's, the Hades cabin. Now it's a big onyx building, completing the large rectangle of a buildings.

I excelled at camp. I got better at sword fighting, thanks to Percy and the other instructors, and I was always good at swimming, so I spent a lot of my time on the beaches, or canoeing with the Nereids. I'm not a big fan of heights, so I've never spent much time climbing the lava wall, even though I loved to hike with my grandparents, and while I liked archery, I tended to be bad at aiming, so over the years I gravitated towards a sword, and at fifteen, I built my own with the help of the Hephaestus cabin.

This summer, it'll be my sixth summer at camp. Which all leads me to where I am now: graduation day.

Graduation was at sunset, the sun lowering over the water as we all crossed the stage to start the first chapter of our adult lives. By the time I crossed the stage, I'd already cheered for Emilie in the R's, and received my diploma to the sound of my mother's hoots and cheers, ready to start the rest of my life.

After dinner with Mom at our favorite hole-in-the-wall place, we went home to our apartment and I started to pack. Emilie and I were both registered for college in the fall. We decided that unlike my brother, Percy, we weren't going to try to go to the Roman college, but attend a normal human university. And instead of living at home, we were going to live a bit closer to the school, in the one other place that really felt like home: Camp Half-Blood. It would practically be like living on our own, since Percy moved in with his girlfriend Annabeth when they both went to college a few years back, and since Emilie's brother, Nico, lived more with his boyfriend Will than he did in his own cabin, she'd mostly be on her own.

It wouldn't be the first time one of us decided to live at camp full time- a few years back, when things started to get tough with monsters, we tried living at camp full time. The only problem with that, though, was that Camp Half-Blood didn't actually offer any real education, so after half a semester without a tenth grade education, we decided it was worth fighting monsters on the way to the subway.

But two years later, Emilie and I had managed to survive our childhood and graduate high school. But as celebration, I- I mean we- decided we wanted to go to a nightclub to party, and so I changed out of my graduation gown into something a little more revealing: a sparkly blue and gold tank top, and tight white shimmering shorts. I wasn't exactly a _stranger_ to the party scene, though the particular club we'd picked was a little more upscale than what I usually dragged Emilie to.

Grabbing my dark green duffle, I kissed my mother goodbye and headed to the corner subway station to meet Emilie at the next station uptown.

* * *

 **Coming soon: additional chapters with actual dialogue! And starting next chapter, introducing the boyfriend, Apollo! I should be posting by this time next week, we already have most of the chapter written. :)**

 **I'd really love to hear from you guys, so** **comment** **in addition to following this story, and check out the other half of this story, the story of Elena's best friend, Emilie Reynolds: _Accidental Affair_ (also on this acount!) (** **not** **Emilie's story)**


	2. Unexpected face in a familiar place

"Hey!" Emilie said, stepping onto the subway car. As practically New York natives- though both of us were born outside the state, Emilie in New Jersey- we knew the subway system well. Emilie looked good- she was wearing a short black dress, though not as short as my shorts, and her mahogany hair was straightened. She sat down beside me on the seat, knocking our knees together as she dropped her own bag on the floor as the subway speed through the underground uptown.

"Hey Em," I said, "ready to get wasted to celebrate us making it through high school?"

"Heh, yeah," she said, a little nervously. She didn't drink often, that was mostly me. And even though we weren't actually allowed to drink, since we were eighteen, and we didn't have fake IDs, I could easily shmooze my way into getting free drinks. The trick was talking too much, giving them more information than they wanted, and they wouldn't ask questions. Also, flirting helped, because someone else would be buying the drink.

The expressway train sped by, and soon we were back on the streets, headed towards a club I'd only heard about through friends. It was a club someone from camp had mentioned, though I forgot who- even though there were only a handful of people even old enough to get into clubs. There wasn't a significant line, so we slipped in easily. Just inside the door, Emilie did her thing- she was so much better at wielding the mist than I was. With a little concentration and a wave of her fingers, the man at the door was taking our bags for us to be stored behind the counter for us to retrieve when we wanted to leave, and he was conveniently forgetting to mark our hands with a sharpie X to say that we weren't old enough to drink.

The club looked _great_. The club was significantly less hazy than the clubs I normally went to, and it was pretty packed for not being that late. But it was a friday night so people were there to _party_. Back to the left there was a raised platform with a bar, where a couple of patrons were sitting, but it was mostly pretty twenty-somethings all vying for the bartender's attention to get drinks. The strobe lights were flashing different colors, and the music was almost too loud to think, but I wasn't there to _think_.

Near the back, the club was a little hazier, and on the platforms there was a line of attractive people- men and women- with their shirts pulled up or completely off, and there was a line of people doing body shots off of them. I bit my lip, and patted Emilie's shoulder. "They're doing _body shots_ over there, I'm going to be right back," and slipped over to the line, following a girl with short red hair. I was next, so I grabbed a hair tie and pulled up my hair, and started slurping like a fucking _champ_. A year ago I might have gotten winded around the fourth shot I got off the pretty black girl, but I was well on my fifth shot, licking my way down the happy trail of sugar down an eight pack thinking how that wasn't the only thing I'd like to lick off that guy's abs when I looked up into the _very_ blue eyes of someone familiar. _Apollo_. Holy shit.

I jerked up too fast, and suddenly I was a little dizzy, bumping into the back of someone on the dancefloor as his gaze burned into mine. _He was watching me._ Holy shit.

The last person in the row wasn't exactly a _person_ , but a god. Holy Poseidon. Apollo, the god of the sun, was lying on the platform, propping himself up on his elbows to watch people- this time a cute hispanic guy- lick sugar off his abs and drink shots from his bellybutton. But he wasn't watching the guy, but _me_. That guy had _nothing_ on Apollo. Apollo was incredibly attractive, in a way that I knew only gods could ever be. He looked a few years older than I did, old enough to pass as twenty-one. He had short blond hair, spiked slightly in the front, but barely enough to look like he'd put any effort into it. And he was shirtless. With an actual eight pack. I'm pretty sure I was drooling. And wow, yeah, the vodka was kicking in.

I wasn't sure to back away or come closer, but then Apollo was sitting up, practically dropping the person who had been trying to suck vodka from his bellybutton, the remaining liquid running down his stomach. I flicked my eyes from there to him- and he was still watching me, curiously, and I had no doubt he knew who I was- at least what I was, anyway. It wasn't the first time I'd ever seen him, but it was the first time I'd ever been that close.

He was still sitting on the platform, but he reached behind himself, grabbing a bottle and a shot glass and pouring himself a drink. He downed it as easily as I would have, and then another, and hopped off the counter. I couldn't help but watch, it was mesmerising. He smiled, and it was blinding, and suddenly he was waving me over and I was following.

"You're Apollo," I said, barely a foot away from him, not breaking eye contact. He smiled again.

"And you're one of Poseidon's- Elena?" he asked. I nodded. I knew the gods could know whatever they wanted if they focused hard enough, and the look he was giving me…. well, he was focused on _something_. He was still grinning, and he nodded his head to the side, urging me to step to the side with him. "Another shot?" he asked, and though I was starting to feel the others, I nodded. He poured me one in the same glass he'd been using, but it wasn't like it really mattered, I'd just licked sugar off his _eight pack_.

I did another round, and then watched while Apollo did one. "I don't think my friends there will mind," he said about the row of people continuing the line of body shots as if he'd never been there, and I thought that maybe they didn't remember that he had.

He glanced at me, and then said, "Wanna do one?" he asked, meaning a body shot. I shrugged, might as well. I mean. Really.

We backed up to the platform, it was large enough that some people were dancing on it with the DJ and the strobe lights, and sill large enough for the line of people doing body shots. I got on it myself, and Apollo poured the vodka onto my belly button. He watched me as he did it. I knew because I was watching _him_. When he was done, he pulled himself up, but almost hovering over me.

He was looking at me again, intensely, and I briefly wondered what it would be like to kiss a god. Especially one with an eight pack, who was really hot.

So I did what any reasonable eighteen year old would do. I pulled him down over me, and kissed him.

It was pretty much like I thought kissing a god would be like. As in, _nothing like anything else I'd ever done before_. His mouth was warm on mine as I felt him smiling into the kiss, like this was the outcome that he'd wanted, and it probably was. I could taste the vodka in his mouth, the sugar brushing my lips onto his. He wrapped his arms around me, and I wove my fingers into his hair, our teeth barely missing crashing into each other as we eagerly devoured each other's mouths.

I don't know who broke the kiss, but it was only so that we'd get a chance to be pulled onto the dancefloor to do what could only generously be described as dancing. And more kissing. There was a lot of that.

Eventually, something beeped. I only noticed it because it vibrated against my skin with every beep, and I felt Apollo sigh- reluctantly- as he pulled away to look at his watch. We were still practically attached to each other as he sighed, and then said, as though he _really_ regretted having to leave. "Sorry, gotta go babe. Godly business," he said, and leaned down and kissed me again, leaving me stunned. By the time I'd turned around, disappearing into a flash of the strobe lights, he was nowhere to be seen.

But, it seemed, neither was much of anyone else. While wrapped up in Apollo's attention, I'd apparently missed the rest of the evening going by. Many of the partiers had cleared out, including the crew by the platforms. I searched the last of the crowd in the dim strobe lighting, finding Emilie with her face pressed to the counter at the bar. I made my way across the bar to her, shaking her. "Emilie!"

"What? Wazzit?" she said, jerking up, her eyes suddenly alert, if not alarmed. "Elena? What time is it?"

I squinted, looking at the numbers on the bartender's screen I could barely see. "Um. Four am?"

"Is this club even open till four?" she grumbled, helping herself down from the barstool. I shrugged. Maybe.

We ducked by the front desk, Emilie doing her thing, grabbing our bags and heading to the bathroom. It wasn't the cleanest place in Manhattan, but it wasn't the dirtiest, either. I rifled through my bag for camp clothes. It wasn't like I'd brought too much else than what was acceptable to wear to camp, but I'd also brought things for school.

Emilie was moving much slower than I was, blinking occasionally as she searched for something to change into. Eventually, she just grabbed an orange shirt and pulled it over her dress, not bothering to really change, and sank back against the bathroom wall. After finding my own orange shirt, I stilled, looking down at it.

"Um," I finally said, unable to hold it in anymore, the night having more surprises than I'd bargained for. I was still trying to wrap my head around some (all) of them, and I suddenly felt the need to air some of them. Very, very far away from Chiron and my father's cabin. "So I kinda did body shots."

"Yeah?" Emilie said, covering her eyes with her hand. She looked like she was beginning to get a hangover. She didn't drink nearly as often as I did- she only really drank when she was at my house, which, in reality, was about half her time, and then only sometimes. But even as often as I drank, I never got hangovers- I have this theory that since I'm a daughter of Poseidon and never get dehydrated, I can't actually get a hangover, since that's what they basically are.

"Off of Apollo," I winced.

"Oh thank gods," she said, looking incredibly relieved all of a sudden. "Because I had the weirdest fucking conversation with Mr. D at the bar and I didn't know how to bring it up."

"What?" I said, because that was somehow more shocking than what _I'd_ said. "He was here? Or you were there?"

"No, he was here," she told me. "I don't know what he was doing, because he wasn't drinking. But he wouldn't let me have his drink," she winced. Oh no. "I asked."

" _Oh no_ ," I said, in sympathy.

"Oh yeah," she winced again. "But what was that about Apollo?"

"We did body shots. Off each other, and then… we made out," I admitted. She'd probably seen, actually. Everyone had probably seen.

"You _just_ made out with him?" Emilie asked, almost skeptically.

"Well I didn't blow him in the bathroom!" I said. She looked up, looking pained. And skeptical. "Okay, I thought about it. But I didn't do it." I sighed. "He left before I would have," I told her. "I regret telling you this." She snorted. "C'mon, up," I said, "We've got to catch a cab to Long Island, and you know how they are at this hour," I told her. It was going to be sunrise, soon. They had things to do at camp. I pulled on the orange tee shirt, and pulled the bag over my shoulder, Emilie reluctantly following me outside.

We hailed a cab, and after paying the guy an extra fifty bucks, he agreed to drive us to the middle of seemingly nowhere and leave us, two teenage girls, there. Of course it wasn't the middle of nowhere, but the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. We passed Thalia's tree, the golden fleece, and the scarred countryside as we stepped passed the magical borders. Of course I'd heard all the stories, about Percy and his friends' daring adventures, and maybe I'd hoped that one day I'd be going on a quest too. But that wasn't everything- I'd fought monsters and gone swimming with nymphs, I'd almost lost a hand to both the three legged death race, and to a homeless guy around fifth ave when I'd dropped my keys in the trash. Hey, I'd even made out with a god. How many other people could say that? Well. At least the number of people that there were kids at camp.

Chiron was waiting at the Big House steps when we arrived. "You two are here early," he observed, looking us over, but he didn't say a word. This was one hundred percent not the weirdest thing that he'd ever seen at camp, I know, because I'd be there.

I smiled, "Well we graduated! And we couldn't wait to get started on canoeing, I think I might go before breakfast."

Beside me, Emilie groaned. Her makeup was smeared, and her hair was a mess. She'd fallen asleep in the cab on my shoulder. Chiron's smile only grew. It was like he knew, the vicious look in his eye. "Yeah, canoeing," she groaned. "Just what I need." For a moment, I thought I saw someone else in the doorway, but then it was gone, the three of us the only ones awake yet.

Chiron nodded, going back into the Big House, functionally dismissing us. Emilie took one look at me and headed off in the direction of the pitch-black Hades cabin. I headed towards my own cabin to drop off the duffle. It was the beginning of the summer, so if Percy was done visiting his family, he'd be back in a few days with Annabeth from the Roman camp where they went to college together. I'd considered going there- Emilie too- but we wanted to stay in the city. California was too far away, even if it was closer to where I'd been born than New York was- but NY was my home now.

I dropped the bag on my usual bunk, changing into proper jean shorts- I liked the skinny bermuda kind. They were a little longer, but they were cute, and when I used to work at American Eagle, I got a discount. The cabin was like it always was- grey stone walls, grey silk bedding, a water spout in the corner. It never had more than three occupants- me, Percy, and Tyson, when he stopped by. I'd met him a few times over the years, but for the most part, it was just me and Percy. Despite the gods making a pact not to have kids, they had an awful lot of them running around: Hades has three, including Emilie, dad has at least Percy and me, and Zeus has Jason and Thalia. Considering, after Thalia, I was the third in place to possibly have saved the world had my brother failed- I tried not to think about that too much.

I figured Dad had a few other kids out there, but whether they were old enough to come to camp yet, I wasn't sure. I ducked out of my cabin, and followed the few people in camp at this time of year up to the pavilion for breakfast. Though there was one unfamiliar face, a young girl at the Hermes table, I knew everyone else there, about twenty people. Pollux, a son of Mr. D, was sitting at his table alone, a few people at the Hephaestus table, Will and Nico were sitting at the Apollo table. Apollo.

Well. Last night was interesting. It felt like a dream, almost, mostly for the sheer unbelievability of it all, even though I hadn't slept at all. I wasn't that tired, and the steaming coffee in my cup was helping. Breakfast was the usual, with sacrifices to the parents, followed by a day of light activities for the all-year campers and the few of us straggling in early, the ones who got out in May rather than June- college students and recent grads, like us.

For the past few years I'd been helping the Nymphs with advanced canoeing because they were getting tired of having to fish campers out of the lake when they thought they were more "advanced" than they were. I did it with minimal complaining. Last year they asked me to help out with beginner swimming classes because Percy was busy studying for college classes, so I had to start lesson plans for that, too, and report in to Chiron about it- even though Mr. D was technically the "Camp Director," he didn't really _do_ anything at camp.

I didn't see Emilie again till dinner, and she looked much better than she had that morning. She'd wiped the makeup off her face, and she'd changed, but she still looked like she wanted to be in bed. She headed straight for her own table, only getting up to make a sacrifice to her father as the thirteenth cabin. Dinner was healthy as usual, and I was glad to be back.

After eating, we had a little time before the Apollo cabin sing-along, so I went with a few others down by the beach to have strength trials. I beat two other campers before being taken down by a fifteen year old Athena kid, whose small appearance was deceiving. I glanced over the water as we headed away from the beach towards the bonfire, and couldn't wait to get the next two weeks before camp officially started, well, started.

* * *

 **More Apollo next chapter! I'd love to hear what y'all think. ;)**


	3. Third time's the charm, right?

**Hi guys! Sorry about the late update, I just got a summer job, and I just started ⅔ of my summer classes. Life is gonna be SO hectic. But we have the next few chapters plotted out!**

* * *

The following week passed by smoothly. There wasn't much lesson planning involved in swimming lessons and guided canoeing, unlike Emilie, who was struggling through her macaroni art class planning, so I mostly spent the few days catching up on Greek activities.

A few more kids had shown up early since we'd arrived, so there were better teams for sparring matches, and people to spot you on the lava wall. One morning on my way to do sunrise archery with Eric, a son of Apollo, I saw April, a daughter of Aphrodite, who I dated a few years back. She was an early riser too, she'd always liked to get up with the sun, and it looked like she was heading to the strawberry fields. I waved as I passed her, we were on good terms. She was nice, but a little too uptight, but she looked happy, her long black hair pulled up in a ponytail.

When I arrived to archery, Eric was already firing flaming arrows at the target. And while I liked archery, the last time I'd tried anything like that, I'd almost caught the Big House on fire, which is a problem because the Big House isn't anywhere near the archery range. I'd had a lot of fires to put out that day. Figuratively and literally.

"Hey," I said, watching him fire off the last arrow. He looked deadly serious, but I knew that was just the concentration. He cried like a baby last time he stubbed his toe. I know, because I was there. His brother Will rolled his eyes and gave him a bandaid.

I sat back on one of the logs at the edge of the range, watching him for a moment. Like most of the kids of Apollo, he was blond and athletic, just like their father. I bit my lip. Eric looked an awfully lot like his father, but I could see his mother there too, not that I had ever met her. Eric had her brown eyes instead of Apollo's blue, and a gap between his front teeth. Finally, he lowered his bow, and said, "Oh, hi, Elena. I didn't see you."

I rolled my eyes, "It's fine, I'd almost rather watch you then do it myself."

He frowned, "Hey, you asked _me_ for help."

"Oh fine," I said, picking up the bow I'd taken from the weapons shed. He collected his arrows, now not flaming, but stopped when he was about to pull the last arrow from the bullseye of the third target.

"Was that April over in the strawberry field?" he asked.

I nodded, "I think."

He looked around, as though anyone else was here, and then said, "You know, I hear she's dating a satyr now."

" _What?_ " I said, flabbergasted. A satyr?

He nodded, "His name is Lark. He was assigned to work with her last year when she was assigned to the strawberry fields for punishment. I don't know, I guess they hit it off."

"Wow," I said. "Weird."

He shrugged, "Like that's the weirdest thing to ever happen at this camp." True.

I raised my bow, drawing back the string to my jaw as he watched with critical eyes. I aimed and released the bow. I didn't breathe for the half a second it took the bow to reach the target. Or rather, miss the target. But just barely. It ended up in the dirt a few feet to the right.

"You know," he said, taking a flaming arrow, "praying to my father would probably help."

Yeah, I'm sure it would.

* * *

After breakfast, which I walked to with Eric before we parted ways and tables, I left camp. Unlike minors left in the care of Chiron and Mr. D, older, adult campers like myself were allowed to leave camp whenever we wished, though they preferred that we told them if we were leaving for any lengthy period of time, in case we'd simply gone missing in the forest or something, so they could feed our belongings to the cleaning harpies.

But I was just going out for coffee, so I didn't tell anyone. It'd be the first time this year, though I'd done it a few times during winter after I turned 18, mostly just to test my boundaries. But also because while camp food was good, camp coffee was kinda terrible. I'd tried asking for specific types of coffee- Starbucks', McDonald's, the place down the street from my mom's- it always ended up tasting an awful lot like the kind that was offered in the backroom of my first job. It got the job done, but gods, at what cost?

So I went out for coffee. Emilie also required bribing to get up in the morning if she was to get up any time before noon, so I had to swing by to pick her up a black iced with sugar, just so she'd get out of bed. I didn't really mind, it was an excuse to get good coffee.

I got Argus to drop me off in town- he didn't mind, usually, he wanted to be useful, otherwise he was just sitting in the Big House alone. I told him I'd get someone to call when I needed a pickup, and he nodded and left.

I went to my usual coffee place. It was cute, sunny, with a few plants and a lot of chairs. It was only nine in the morning, so there were a few people in there already when I stepped in the door. There was something like a flash of light, but more like a bright glare, obscuring the customer at the bar by the door, and I was washed over with a feeling of familiarity, but I didn't dwell on it, just headed towards the counter. There were two people in line- a middle aged woman, and a Korean kid. I didn't have to look at the menu, I already knew what I wanted, so instead I looked around the shop.

Instead of looking, though, I seemed to be drawn to the spot by the door. The other customer just happened to look up as I looked over to him, and I realized I _did_ know him. It was Apollo, _again_.

I wasn't sure it was him at first. I mean, I _was_ , but I was kinda hoping it wasn't. Maybe there was some other really hot, blond twenty-something looking guy in a New York coffee shop who I hadn't made out with before. Maybe.

But it was definitely Apollo. And then I had to make a decision, fight or flight instinct kicking in (which was unusually strong as in the case of most demigods). Do I talk to him, or do I pretend we never saw each other and be on our merry ways?

My brain was thinking 'Be smart, Elena! Don't talk to him! Nothing good can ever come out of talking with a god! (Except you, of course.)' but the rest of me was saying 'You've never been smart, and you _really_ wanna talk to him and find out what happens next.'

I went with the less smart part of my brain.

(And maybe he did too, because he was looking over at me, gone from his face the expression of surprise, replaced by a sunny smile.)

"Elena," he said, stepping over to me. It must have been a trick of the light, because while previously he'd been across the room at the door, he was now by my side.

"Apollo!" I said, "Do you, um, want a coffee?" I asked, more casually than I felt, realizing that I was next up in line.

The surprised look was back, just briefly, and he smiled. "You know, I'm usually the one asking that."

I glanced him over, "Well, I'm not surprised about that, but I think it might just be because you get to them first." He grinned. We ordered- me a latte, him the same. I paid for Emilie's, but I said I'd pick it up on the way out, and the barista nodded.

With our coffees, we sat down, and I finally got a chance to really look at him. I'm sure he didn't mind the staring.

Apollo was still incredibly handsome- that I hadn't missed while being tipsy- but he did look slightly different than he had the other night. Instead of having shorter hair, his hair was a little longer, and pulled into a man-bun, and though his eyes were still blue, they shone like the sun.

The sun! Oh gods, if Apollo was here, then who was flying the sun?!

I must have suddenly had a terrified look on my face, because suddenly Apollo leaned in with a concerned look and asked, "Elena? Are you alright?"

"If you're here, then who's flying the sun?" I blurted. He blinked. Then he broke out into laughter, leaning back, relieved.

"I am," he told me.

"What?"

"I can be in more than one place at once," he said, with a sure look in his eye. Oh. Wow. Yeah that made a lot of sense. I told him that. He smirked, still leaning back. His smile was almost blinding, and he really, truly looked like a god. But a god in cuffed jeans and and a patterned shirt, a pair of ray-bans in his front pocket. He looked a little older than me, though I couldn't tell how old exactly, I was bad at ages.

But he was charming, and if he kept looking at me like that I might have to do something about it.

Okay, so... I haven't been completely honest.

Besides my father- and Mr. D, who doesn't really count- Apollo is actually the god I've seen the most often. It was all an incredible coincidence, actually, but over the years I've just seemed to run into him, occasionally, and this seemed like one of those times. The club was another.

The very same trip to Mount Olympus when I was thirteen where I saw Emilie's father, was actually where I saw Apollo for the first time, too. It was the annual Winter Solstice trip that camp took to Olympus, and since Emilie and I had spent the winter at camp, we went along. At that time, he'd looked about seventeen, sitting on his golden throne, completely ignoring all of us with the headphones to his iPod in, even though some of his kids were falling over themselves trying to get a look at him. Then again, two years later, again on Olympus.

We were walking up the path towards the throne room, and on one of the fountains, in the falling snow, Apollo was sitting with two of the muses. He had his arm around one of them, and the other was perched on the ledge, stroking a harp. When we all approached, he looked up, looking us all over, but not specifically at me, or anyone.

The third, I wasn't so sure about till a few days ago. All the previous times I'd seen Apollo, he'd looked like a teenager, like a really attractive, carefree senior in high school- but this time, _I_ was a senior in high school. I'd been walking home from school one afternoon, and glancing across the street I saw him- but this time, he looked to be about twenty-five. I wasn't sure it was him, but our eyes met from across the street, and in a flash he was gone.

So we talked for a little while. He asked what I was doing outside of camp- coffee, obviously- and what I was doing with my life.

"I just graduated," I told him. He was leaning back in his seat.

"Oh yeah? I remember high school. Not that I've ever been to high school. But being a teenager sucked," he said, trailing off. I shrugged. "What are you going to do now?"

I smiled broadly, just thinking about it, "I got accepted into Adelphi College not far from here," I said, and Apollo smirked.

"Nice name," he said.

I rolled my eyes, "You _would_ say that." I took a sip of my latte, "I'm going into Philosophy," I told him.

"I've dabbled in philosophy myself," Apollo said, "but I prefer poetry. Haikus and all that. Want me to recite you one?"

"Uh," I said. I'd heard about the horrors of Apollo's poetry. But before I could say anything else, he shook his head.

"Let me recite you my favorites:

Seduction of eyes,

beware the touch of beauty,

thorns from deep within."

I raised an eyebrow, and he just shook his head, "Don't worry about it, poetry isn't for _everyone_."

I rolled my eyes again, "Well _philosophy_ isn't for everyone," I said a little saucily.

"Fair," he said, looking up from his own drink. "So…. are you gonna join Greek life? A sorority? A fraternity?" he looked me up and down, "They do wet t-shirt contests, you know. You should totally join one."

I almost snorted, " _You_ should join one," I retorted.

He grinned, "Okay, I will."

I rolled my eyes again. This wasn't exactly what I thought talking to a god would be like, exactly. He was really… human, oddly.

"So are you living on campus? A dorm maybe?"

I shook my head, "No, we decided I'd live at Camp Half-Blood full time, since it would save money, and keep my possible roommate out of danger."

"Oh," he said, and I could have sworn he looked disappointed. He opened his mouth to say something else, but then I saw the clock. It was almost ten thirty in the morning.

"Oh fuck! Emilie will never get out of bed now!" I said, standing up. "I'm really sorry, Apollo, I've got to go. Camp stuff," I said with a shrug. I _was_ sorry to go, though, I wanted to know where this was going. I had no idea where it was going, but Apollo was really nice to look at, and he seemed like he was at least somewhat interested in what I had to say.

I dashed over to the counter and the man handed me Emilie's iced drink, and I turned to see Apollo just behind me. He was suddenly very close, and for a moment, my heart fluttered in my chest. I was flustered. I could feel the heat of his body radiating off him, onto me, and he smelled… a little like smoke, though not cigarette smoke or anything awful like that.

"How are you getting back to camp?" he asked. For a moment, I'd forgotten about camp completely.

"Camp? Oh-" I said, "I was going to call Argus."

"Call?" he frowned. Even Apollo knew the dangers of cell phones for demigods.

"Uh, yeah. If we need Argus to come pick us up, we borrow someone's phone, make the call, and then run about three blocks in a different direction so the monsters don't find us," I explained, shrugging.

Apollo looked at me like I'd grown a second head, "Wow, that's kind of barbaric."

I shrugged. What could you do?

He paused, looking at me for a moment, and then said, "I can give you a ride."

"... With the sun chariot?" He stared. "Oh right, two places at once."

He nodded, and I followed him out of the coffee shop. A red convertible was parked on the street that had definitely not been there when I'd come in. "We're not going to like... fly there, are we?" I asked nervously. Apollo's father, Zeus, and I were not on the... best of terms, I'd say.

Apollo laughed, "No, we're going to drive. C'mon," he said, and didn't even bother using the door to climb in. _I_ did though.

The drive back to camp wasn't especially long, but it felt especially long today, though I could have sworn Apollo liked to speed across the sky, he was following every traffic law, even as we approached the middle of nowhere. When we saw Thalia's tree and the archway, Apollo pulled to a stop.

I turned to Apollo, "Thanks for the ride," I said.

Apollo said, "Thanks for the coffee," but looked like he'd meant to say something else. He opened his mouth, but then shut it again, and we stared at each other for a moment, like each of us were daring the other to do something. I would have said, ' _Any time_ ,' but that didn't feel like the right thing to say either. Even though I meant it.

But the ice in the coffee was melting in my hand, and I sucked in a breath, and said, "I- have to go."

He nodded, and I climbed from the car. I bit my lip, but I didn't turn back.

I crossed the magical border, and made the long walk back to the cabins across the landscape. It was nearing eleven, so every camper- minus Emilie and probably most of the Hypnos cabin- were up and about. A few more people must have arrived since breakfast, because I saw Clarisse from the Ares cabin teaching sword fighting, and Alex from the Nyx cabin on the Big House porch.

As I neared the rectangle of cabins, I saw the canoe lake out of the corner of my eye. I longed to just dive in and sit at the bottom talking with the naiads. Apparently they- like their sisters the nereids- used to watch me and my brother Percy with interest because of our father. But I never noticed the faces in the waves. I liked them, though. They taught canoeing, and they liked to sit under the water and weave baskets. They liked to flirt with my brother, but they were much more friendly with me, and they were awful gossips. Sometimes it was fun to sit with them on the lake floor, and weave with them. Of course, I couldn't always tell them names, but their advice was nice because they weren't as noisy as the Aphrodite cabin.

Instead, I veered to the left, heading straight for Cabin 13. I didn't bother knocking. It's not like either Emilie or her brother would be naked in the middle of the cabin at eleven am. Plus, Emilie probably wasn't even out of bed yet.

The cabin was large, obsidian, and imposing, but it wasn't like I hadn't been in there before. There were no windows, but the torches flashed on as soon as I opened the door. I think they were automatic, only turning on when someone awake was in the cabin. The torches illuminated what looked more like a vampire's lair than a demigod's cabin- Nico agreed with me. Emilie was sleeping in one of the "coffin beds." She'd groaned and covered her face with a pillow when the lights came on.

"Emilie!" I said, shaking her. She just groaned. I grabbed a pillow off the nearest coffin, and whacked her with it.

"What?" she finally said, looking up, bleary-eyed. "Oh, coffee." She sat up against the headboard, and took the coffee from my hands. After a moment, she blinked. "You're still here."

I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to say _'I live here._ ' "Yes," I said instead. "I, um, met someone, while getting coffee."

Emilie's eyes widened, and patted the bed at her feet. Even if she hadn't scooted up to the headboard, she wouldn't have reached me with her tiny legs. "Were they cute?" she asked. "Did you-" she was going to ask, ' _Get their number?_ ' but since we couldn't use phones…. "Uh, arrange to meet them again?" she winced, and shrugged, taking another sip of her coffee. "Whatever."

"Not... like that," I said. "I saw Apollo again." Her eyes widened comically.

"You saw him _again_?" she said, coffee forgotten. "Was he just like, there?"

I shrugged, and told her what happened. Including the car ride ending with the almost…. whatever it was. "So," I finally said, "I think he was flirting with me."

Emilie looked like she wanted to smack herself in the face. Maybe smack me in the face. Or both. "Um, of course he was flirting with you. _Obviously,_ " yes, right. "So like. Hell yeah. Elena, get that divine dick!" and then, slightly fast, and more serious, "But don't piss him off ever you may die."

I rolled my eyes, but felt better. Okay, he was definitely flirting. I mean…. I kinda knew that, but a god was a whole new territory. And no one else had died from fucking a god, yet. (Except, of course they had. Like. Every man and woman in history. Ever. I mean, including half of the parents of the kids here at camp, probably.) Man. Ok. That dick's gotta be worth it, right? But of course it was. Apollo was literally the most attractive Olympian, and the Olympians were like… the world's most attractive bunch of people _ever_. Even so much as Hera, who like, hated her husband's bastards, couldn't deny him a place on Olympus. (Thank you, Greek mythology lessons.) He also had the most kids here at camp. Totally worth it.

I shook my head. What was I even talking about? I wasn't going to die for possibly sleeping with Apollo! Hades, I wasn't even sure I was gonna sleep with Apollo at all.

I stood up, "I'm going swimming with the naiads, see you at lunch."

"Mhmm," she said, slurping her coffee.

Finishing a basket I'd started that week at the bottom of the lake, the naiads gave me pretty much the same advice- suggestion?- Emilie had. But I wasn't telling them who I ran into, of course. Unlike the Aphrodite cabin, the naiads knew both the Olympians and the campers, so there'd be a good chance of this thing with Apollo getting back to Olympus, and I was pretty sure this was not something I wanted to tell my father about. My father!

After waving bye to the naiads, I swam to the surface of the lake, startling two campers in a canoe as I popped up on the surface. When I climbed onto the shore, I was completely dry, and headed straight back to my cabin to compose a letter to Poseidon before lunch. I just filled him in on a few things- I was teaching recreational swimming again, and I was doing canoeing this year- and that I was doing fine at camp so far. Nothing about Apollo, because I'm pretty sure he was fine with me dating like, a daughter of Demeter, but making out with Apollo was a little… weird. I wasn't going to worry about it anymore. Going with the flow.

I dropped the letter off at the Big House on the way to the Mess Hall, and saw Emilie there. After lunch, I went over my lesson plans for the rest of the summer regarding the swimming lessons, and showed Chiron, since he was the Activities Director, and showed up at the war room meetings, since I was currently the only one in the Poseidon cabin. By the time I'd gotten everything done on my list of responsibilities, it was dinner time again.

After dinner, Mr. D stood up to make his weekly announcement. "Chiron wanted me to say a few words… since more of _you_ will be showing up to start summer… next saturday, we'll be holding capture the flag," he sat down quickly, muttering something like, "Maybe a few of you will die during it…." which I barely heard over the cheering. Maybe this summer really would be the best one yet.

* * *

 ***Winky face* Apollo! He's totally not stalking her. At all. He just happened to be in all of those places she was. What're his intentions? Read more to find out!**

 **There should be an update next saturday! ;)**


	4. Fight me

**Hi guys! Long time no see, huh? (Whit and I are really sorry about that….. Whit just transferred to my university and now we're roommates!) So tomorrow (10/24) is the 6 year anniversary of our fics! It's been a real ride, huh? Three versions of their lives later and we're here!**

* * *

I started teaching the recreational swimming classes, even though camp wouldn't officially start for little under a week. There were only a couple of people in the 10-12 age range currently at camp, so I supervised the younger kids' swimming too, the naiads happy to hand them off to me. Lesson plans weren't really difficult- the lessons didn't really last more than 45 minutes, and the kids got pretty tired pretty easily, since the camp didn't really believe in things like "water wings" and "life vests" and "safety guidelines."

After waving goodbye to the naiads and helping the kids towel off- all of them running off in the direction of their cabins to change so they wouldn't be dripping wet at lunch, I spotted Chiron waiting on the beach of the canoe lake. When I got out, I was dripping. I'd always like the feel of the water drying on my skin in the sun, but ever since I was claimed, I'd been dry as a default when getting in and out of the water. So sometimes I just liked to will the water to seep in. I grabbed the towel from my bag in the sand, next to a beached canoe.

"Hi Chiron," I said, toweling off my hair.

"Elena," he said, "I see you're doing well with the class."

I nodded, "Alice showed up this morning, apparently her dad dropped her off," I said of a daughter of Demeter. She was the first in my classes who hadn't been there since I'd gotten there. I saw a few more people entering camp, but there was no sign of either Percy or Annabeth yet, the two people I was the most excited to see.

Chiron nodded, "And your lesson plans?"

"Oh! I have those!" I said, scrambling to my bag to get them. I handed them to him. They were laminated. Thanks, Athena cabin. He looked them over for a moment, and then handed them back. He had a look of approval on his face. I beamed.

Chiron looked across the lake towards the arts & crafts pavilion, his hooves scraping the sand, his tail flicking. "How is Emilie's macaroni art class?" he asked.

"Uh," I said. Shouldn't he have asked her himself when she came to report to him? "Fine, I think," I told him, looking over. She wasn't there, then, I don't think, it was almost lunch time so any and all classes should have been over. She'd probably show up to lunch, I'd sit with her then and catch up.

He nodded and we talked a little bit, before he left for lunch. I pulled on jean shorts, and headed up to the pavilion in just my bikini top, my hair drying in beachy waves. I went through the line, and dropped next to Emilie on the Hades cabin table. Emilie looked up, her mouth full of BBQ.

She'd been staring ahead with a blank stare, looking towards Mr. D's table. There were three people- including Mr. D- at the table. Pollux, who lived at camp all year, was there as usual, but so was his half-sister, Camy, who must have shown up this morning during my class.

The pavilion was a little busier than it had been the last two weeks, but not everyone was out of school yet, so people were arriving when they could. Camp officially started in less than a week, so the pavilion would be overrun soon enough.

* * *

The following morning, I had sunrise archery with the Apollo cabin again, and I had plans for cliff diving past the beach- not something anyone but a child of Poseidon should be doing. When it was almost over, with Kayla leading this time, Emilie appeared as if out of nowhere, looking tired, but drinking an extremely large mug of something that must certainly been camp coffee the way she was wincing every time she took a sip. I was surprised to see her awake in that hour. I lowered my bow.

"Elena," she said, as I unstrung my bow.

"Emilie!" I said, "What are you doing here?"

She looked over my shoulder, pointedly towards one of the other people in the class- Eric, maybe? He'd been standing next to me. "I'm up early to get stuff ready for my class. I was hoping everything would be here by now, but…"

"But?" I asked. She mumbled something, looking down at the ground. "What?" I asked.

"The macaroni isn't here yet," she said, ever suffering.

I snorted. She looked up at me as I tried to cover my laughter with my hand. "I'm sorry," I giggled, "I'm sorry but you have to admit that this is hilarious."

"It doesn't feel hilarious!" she whined, dramatic, "How am I supposed to teach without macaroni? I'm ruined!"

"Oh don't be so dramatic. I'm sure you'll be fine. There's hardly anyone at camp, anyway," I told her. "I'm sure you could improvise." I zipped up the last of my things and stood up straight. I shifted my weight, waiting for Emilie to follow me.

"How do I do that?" she asked, trailing after me. Emilie was slow as Hades.

I rolled my eyes, "I have no idea. The kids are like, seven, right? They'll do whatever you say. Make them draw stuff, outline rocks or whatever. Or do your laundry," I laughed, I knew Emilie wasn't doing it.

"Elena," she said suddenly, "You're a genious. I could kiss you."

"Please don't," I said, wrinkling my nose. "Are you actually going to make them do your laundry?"

"What? Oh, no. But! Outlining is a totally bullshit lesson. It'll teach them patience, or something."

We headed back towards the cabins. I needed to drop off my bow before breakfast, and I needed to change into my bathing suit. Contrary to what Emilie thinks, I don't actually wear my bathing suit under my clothes all the time. _Anymore_. After that, we headed to breakfast, where I got my own giant cup of awful coffee.

* * *

It was mid afternoon, the sun high in the sky, by the time I got around to going cliff diving. I brought my over the shoulder bag with a towel and a book, and trekked across the edge of the beach past the forest on the trek uphill to the cliffs. From the red rock cliffs, the water looked an awful lot like our mediterranean heritage, sparkling blue water.

I wasn't too fond of heights, but looking down into comforting water made everything okay. I took a deep breath, and dived in, making an arch. I didn't need to hold my breath as I dived in, I took a deep breath underwater among the splash of the bubbles, my eyes opened as fish scattered. I waved to the fish before popping up. The easiest way to get up there was just to climb the cliff, but I know Percy had done some fancy maneuvers that involved using a water spout to shoot him back up to the cliffs. What a show off.

I just climbed up, they were much less scary than the lava wall. After a few dives, I decided to lay out on the cliff with my towel, reading the book I brought. It was an anthology of Plato's works, including his Symposium- all in the original Ancient Greek, of course. The Symposium was my favorite of his works of philosophy. It was about love, and soulmates. Basically, it states that when Zeus created humans, he created them with four arms and four legs and two heads. But some were jealous of these people, so they split them up, and people are destined to forever search for their other half to make them whole again. But they weren't just male/female, some were male/male, or female/female. That's why the Greeks are so okay with lovers of any gender, we're just made that way.

I was halfway through my reread when I saw a shadow looming over me. I looked up from my book to see Apollo standing over me.

"Apollo!" I said, scrambling up. "How'd you know I was here? Were you watching me?" I asked.

"Of course I was. Do you know how good you look in a bikini?" I snorted. I mean, yeah I knew, but I wasn't anything particularly _special_. "Now, c'mon Elena, are we just gonna sit here reading _Plato_ \- I mean c'mon if you're gonna read something in the original Greek read the Iliad or something, now _that's_ poetry- or are we gonna do some cliff diving?"

I took his offered hand, pulling up beside him, but before I had a chance to register the mischievous look on his face, he was pulling me over the cliff with him, a grin on his face. We landed in the water with a splash. "Apollo!" I said when we resurfaced, but I wasn't really mad. I mean, how could you be mad at that face?

I splashed him instead, but all the water on his face evaporated with the heat. He stuck his tongue out at me. "Race you to the top!" he said, and started swimming back to the cliff.

At least on that I'd got him beat, and I was there in half the time with my strokes. We were pretty evenly matched climbing up, so I got up a little faster than he did. I winked at him before jumping off the cliff backwards, doing a flip before I landed in the water. He followed with a swan dive.

We spent the better part of the hour outdoing each other with complicated dives off the cliff- and I knew quite a few, I was on my school's swim team in high school. Never any competitions, I just liked to swim. When I finally climbed back into the clifftop, I dropped to the ground, looking up at the sky. The sun was getting pretty low, and Apollo climbed up next to me, dripping wet as he looked over me, the sun behind his head obscuring his features. I knew what I wanted to do. I mean, wasn't it obvious?

I sat up, our legs pressing together, side to side. And I kissed him.

I could feel the salt on his skin as the water evaporated off of us, he even tasted like the beach, as I could feel him smiling into the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his hands touched my waist, and I pulled him on top of me, my back hitting the stone of the cliff.

His body was pressed to mine, and I could feel the heat radiating off of him as he pulled back slightly. His eyes were just far enough away from mine that I could see the blue of them clearly. I'm sure the murky hazel of mine was just as clear to him, his blond hair was falling on his forehead.

"We should go on a date," he said, matter of fact. I mean, was I going to say no? No.

"Okay," I said.

His face brightened, though I knew he wasn't thinking I was going to say no, either. "Next Saturday?" he said. That would be the day after capture the flag, I wouldn't have anything to do that day.

"Okay," I said, and kissed him again. I wasn't going to think about where this is going.

* * *

I was smiling all the way back to my cabin. I was so distracted I didn't worry about the fact the door was cracked open. "Percy!" I said, startled to find my brother in the middle of the cabin unpacking.

"Oh, hey Elena," he said. "Just came from the beach?" Oh Percy, so observant, as Annabeth would say.

I nodded, "Cliff diving," he smiled at that.

"I was at my mom's," he said, like he wasn't there every summer. "Annabeth and I visited her dad and her stepmom and brothers in California too," he said, dumping the contents of the duffle onto his bed.

"I just graduated," I told him, "Emilie and I have been here for a few weeks already." He nodded, and dumped out his backpack too.

Percy looked like he was holding his breath, looking at his clothes, and I was about to ask if he hadn't washed them all semester or something, but instead he blurted out,

"Sorry I've been kind of… absent, for awhile," he said, almost guiltily. "I, uh…. I just came back from seeing my mom, and uh, my little sister. My other little sister, on my mom's side," he clarified, even though I knew what he was talking about, of course. "I hadn't seen her in nearly four months," he told me, "since, I mean, my parents are a lot better off than when it was just me and my mom, you know? Because she got a degree and Paul and everything, but they couldn't come to the Roman college anyway, so what was the point of them flying to visit me?

"And it takes days to get across the country by driving or train, so why would I take a trip back when I'd have to take a week off of classes? But anyway!" he said, shaking his head, "What I mean to say is- she's my half sister, just on my mom's side, and I always just considered her my _sister_. But you're my half sister too! Just on the other side. And maybe she'll be like my mom and be able to see through the mist, but she'll never be a demigod like us, and therefore she'll never really get to see this side of me, or share this kind of life, but you will. And I kind of haven't been fair over the years. You're just as much of a sister as she is. Like Tyson is our weird little brother," he said, out of breath.

I stared at him like he had two heads, for just a moment. "Um," I said.

"Was that too weird?" he said, "Annabeth said that might be too weird."

I snorted, "No, I mean, it's you-weird," he laughed. "I mean…. I get it, I don't really have any other siblings, and you've kinda got that only-child syndrome going on."

"Yeah," he said rubbing the back of his head, "I guess I do. I gotta try better than that."

"Yeah," I said, "I'm gonna go shower."

He nodded, but before I left, he said, "Elena- usual team up at capture the flag?"

"Yeah," I said, with a smile.

* * *

"Where were you?" Emilie asked when I spotted her around the hearth in the middle of the cabins on the way back from the showers. I glanced towards the Apollo cabin. "Percy is back!"

"I know," I told her, "I saw him in our cabin."

"Oh," she said. "What do you think's for dinner?"

"Probably barbeque," I said.

"Fair," she said, and we marched off towards the mess hall after I dropped off my towel.

* * *

After Percy and Annabeth showed up, the rest of the kids started pouring in. There were a few more claimings, the usual annual dramatic chase by monsters, and one chariot race where a kid got his arm cut clean off. I hadn't seen Will that excited since Emilie broke her arm last winter.

Finally, it was capture the flag time. Well. It was actually Friday afternoon, after lunch. We were all piled into the war room of the big house- the Dionysus kids were on our side, so we easily got approved for Blue team meeting in the war room, probably because Mr. D didn't wanna deal with his kids any longer than the rest of us, so he just lets them do whatever they want. That's why we like them. That, and because us small cabins have a long-standing treaty with the smaller cabins to form one large team of three-people cabins.

Our side has free soda, so people actually show up. Alex from Nyx, along with his siblings were sitting in chairs over to the side, Alex with two sodas for himself. The whole Apollo cabin was there, with Nico plastered to Will's side, Percy separating them from the Hecate and Iris cabin leaders. Will and Percy butt heads when it comes to leadership, so they take turns as leadership roles when it comes to capture the flag- this time it's Will's turn.

"Alright," Will said, putting his hands on the table, "Tri-Delta strategy?" he said. Everyone nodded, murmuring. We hadn't done that in awhile, so they shouldn't be anticipating it. It involved sending three different parties divided into three- that's where the tri-delta comes in. They send someone ahead to look for the flag, and then two people with them to help them capture it. Three more people guarding the flag, and the rest in three-people teams dividing up as decoys.

"Percy, you're on guard duty. You're with…" he looked around, spotting me, "Elena, and, uh…. Camy," he said, nodding at Mr. D's daughter. "Hide it somewhere full of water- over by the creek?" he suggested.

Percy made eye contact with me, "Got it," he said, and then nodded at Camy. Camy was looking a little wild-eyed. It was funny how different Mr. D's kids all were. I didn't know any of them all that well, but Camy was very eager to fight always. She had long, dirty blonde hair, darker than Pollux's, and completely straight. Like her father, she was rather fond of elephants, and had them stitched into her jean shorts, and drawn on the back of her orange shirt in sharpie. She liked to carry a whip around with her at all times, even in the dining pavilion. I'd even heard that she didn't even live in her own cabin- she lived under one of the beds in the Hermes cabin, or with her boyfriend Carlos in the Ares cabin.

"Recon…" Will said, and beside him, Nico nodded. "Oh no," he said to Nico, "Your sister is here, she can do it. You're with me."

"What? Oh alright," he said, crossing his arms. The position of flag-capturer always went to a Hades kid- they had the advantage of shadow traveling and popping up every 20 feet to see if they could find the flag.

"Pollux and Lou Ellen are with Emilie," Will said, as final. "Everyone else grab two partners."

"Will, don't make us lose the damn capture the flag game because you didn't want to part from your boyfriend!" Alex said. Next to him, a son of Iris was standing, Langdon, who was nodding his head.

"Hey!" Will said, "We have Emilie! She's, uh…. she's an adult! She's…. competent?" he turned to Nico, whispering, "That was the word you wanted me to use, right? 'Competent'?" Nico nodded, rolling his eyes, "Yes! She's competent!"

"Wow, thanks guys," Emilie said, rolling her eyes. But she was already looking towards Pollux and Lou Ellen across the room.

"Pollux," Will said, "Please try not to 'accidentally' maim yourself again, I'm tired of stitching you back together," he said, and Pollux looked down, his hand on his hip, "and on _that_ note Emilie you should probably also not do anything."

"What?" Emilie said, "I'm the lead!"

"Yes, and you're gonna be super tired. Try not to die, thanks," he said. "Okay, everyone meet at six!"

* * *

Percy and I grabbed Camy, taking the blue flag into the middle of the forest. Unlike Percy and I, she wasn't wearing any armor other than a bronze helmet. I saw Emilie, Pollux and Lou Ellen disappear into the shadows, and Nico, Will, and Butch march off towards the jail. The rest of the team scattered in groups of three.

About fifteen minutes down the creek, Percy and I stuck the flag in the middle of the shallow creek and waited. We didn't have to wait long, though, because a pair of young Demeter girls appeared from the woods, wide-eyed, and charging towards the flag. It was easy to take them out. As soon as they stepped into the water, Percy and I swept them off their feet and out of the way. When Camy came back from patrolling the nearby woods, as she technically wasn't allowed to guard the flag with us, she escorted them over to the jail.

A few more times of this, Percy and I literally sweeping them out of the way, before Camy came back from another patrol of the nearby woods. It wasn't five minutes when we heard a large clattering of armor, and something else that sounded like… teeth chattering? I looked towards Percy, who was frowning in confusion. Camy pulled herself off the ground where she'd been sitting, dumping sand out of her shoes.

Seconds later, almost ten people from the red team in full armor ran by, all yelling. Percy and I gathered up the water, but none of them made any move towards the flag. They weren't even looking towards it. One of them, who I recognized from the Hermes cabin, was wearing bright gold armor stolen from the Apollo cabin- I knew this because it was Eric's armor he'd lost last winter before a match with me.

The red team ran by us screaming, confusing even Camy. But then, we saw the source of their fear. Six large Myrmekes- giant ants who lived in the forest- were chasing after them. Probably after Eric's gold armor. Percy and I put up a wall of water between us and the Myrmekes, since ants don't like water. Through the watery wall we could see the ants scurry by- they didn't stop for us.

Camy, who was on our side of the wall, was watching the ants too. She let out a war cry that wouldn't be out of place in the Ares cabin, ripping off her shirt completely, and charged off after the retreating opposing team with her whip raised high in the air.

"You know, I'm not surprised it took her that long," I told Percy, shaking my head. He laughed.

After awhile, we got bored of just sweeping people out of the way, so Percy and I started actually fighting the campers that came through. They mostly just came in groups of one or two, easily taken out, especially if we were standing in the water. But then Annabeth showed up.

She wasn't alone. She brought with her Clarisse, Miranda Gardner, and one of the Aphrodite boys. "Took you long enough to find us!" Percy called out to his girlfriend. She was grinning, and wasn't wearing her invisibility cap. I think she wanted a good fight.

"They stuck me on flag duty!" she said, eyeing us. And they begin fighting. That left me with everyone else. Oh thanks, Percy.

I could take the Aphrodite boy, but Clarisse was going to be a little bit more of a hassle, especially since Miranda was trying to sneak her vines around to grab the flag. I couldn't be three places at once, unless….

Percy was probably going to hate me a little bit, but I was gonna try it anyway. That's what these capture the flag games were for anyway, practice, right? I could feel the earth, the shifting of plates, like waves in the ocean, calling to me and….

The earth began to shake, violently, more than I'd ever made it before. Last time, I couldn't even have it felt from across the camp. This time, I could feel it across the forest. Knocking people off their feet, the ground trembling beneath them. The fighters around me were knocked off their feet. The Aphrodite boy was looking at me with a gaping mouth and wide eyes, while Miranda was looking rather sour, her vines wilting.

And then I passed out.

* * *

I came-to floating in shallow water of the creek, with both Percy and Annabeth looking over me, worried. "Uh," Percy said, "Are you okay?" He offered his hand, pulling me up, patting my shoulder. "Hey," he said, looking around, "I think you shook the whole forest with that earthquake there."

"Yeah," I said, my voice squeaky, "I felt that."

Annabeth looked sour now that I was alright, she was crossing her arms, "Looks like you guys won," she said, "grabbed the flag as soon as I left!"

"Yay," I said weakly.

"Maybe you should go to the big house," Annabeth said, more concerned.

"Maybe I should go to the big house," I said, Percy helping me up.

* * *

The Apollo kids who's gotten back to the big house porch first were handing out nectar to kids on the porch. I saw Camy happily sipping on one next to Carlos, who had a matching bruise on his forehead. Her arms were covered in bandaids, and I couldn't be entirely certain where the blood was coming from on her face. Eric handed me one, so I sat down, shakily, on the edge of the porch watching the rest of the slightly-wounded kids in.

A few minutes later, I saw them bringing in Emilie, who was clearly unconscious, monitored by Will. I sat up. "What happened?" I said, looking over her, worriedly.

"Oh she just fell off the rock and broke like six bones," Will said, "she'll be fine in like two days," he said, instructing Red, an Ares boy, to drop her down on one of the free lawn chairs.

"Oh, okay," I said, watching the steady stream of campers haul in. Maybe not the best capture the flag we've ever had, but we'd won for the first time in maybe five rounds, so technically we'd been doing well.

"Hey," Eric said, dropping down beside me in a squat, "We're gonna have a round of celebrating after this, you in?" I nodded, looking off towards the sunset.

* * *

 **ANYWAY about our university… so we live in the sunshine state ;) (ayyy Apollo), go to a school whose mascot is a bull, whose newspaper is THE ORACLE (our "Onion" is The Odyssey), and whose buildings are all named after Greek figures (i.e. Castor, Juniper…)... and who's in the same city as the alternate name for Emilie in the novel we're writing. ;)**

 **Oh, and for anyone who's a fan of the old fic: I just dyed part of my hair blue! I don't remember if that stayed in the final draft of the old fic, but at one point Elena had blue streaks in her hair. Oh, and these are really obscure, but: We met our Alex (son of Nyx) and Lou Ellen (daughter of Hecate) though both of them are actually children of Dionysus…**

 **More Apollo next chapter!**


End file.
